Fake police recruitment order goes viral, home dept lodges complaint

Mumbai: The home department has filed a complaint with the Marine Drive police station after an unidentified person created a duplicate government notification regarding police recruitment across the state and circulated it on WhatsApp

Mumbai: The home department has filed a complaint with the Marine Drive police station after an unidentified person created a duplicate government notification regarding police recruitment across the state and circulated it on WhatsApp.

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The duplicate notification had the name of the home department secretary and also the serial number of the original government order, the police said.

The complainant Anil Kulkarni, 56, a secretary in the home department, on Tuesday lodged a complaint with the Marine Drive police station. Kulkarni looks after the establishment-related work of the police department from constable to police inspector ranks and government orders related to the topic are issued under his signature.

On Saturday, while Kulkarni was at home he received a WhatsApp message from Shankar Kulkarni, an office superintendent (training) in the office of the director general of police.

The message from Shankar Kulkarni contained a copy of the government order regarding Maharashtra police recruitment. Shankar Kulkarni informed the complainant that the duplicate order was going viral on WhatsApp.

“The accused person used the format of the original order of Maharashtra police recruitment (non-ordinary 233), which was issued in June 2022. The accused also mentioned five new conditions for the candidates in the duplicate order. These five new conditions were about letting aspiring candidates know that the candidate can apply only for one post at one time,” an officer said.

Another aspect the duplicate order mentioned was that only one application can be made in the entire state of Maharashtra for the post of a police constable, driver, or recruitment for the posts in SRPF, GRP, etc., the officer added.

However, in reality, there are no such conditions for the police recruitment process.

“The duplicate order had the serial number of the original order and the name of the secretary from the home department. As the duplicate order was making rounds on WhatsApp, based on the complaint from the home department we have registered a case under sections 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating) and 511 (attempt to commit a cognizable offence). We have initiated a probe in the matter,” said Vishwanath Kolekar, senior inspector of Marine Drive police station.

The police are clueless about who could benefit from this act and what was their motive behind making this fake order.